forging one's own path
by love-hate writing
Summary: Sasuke decides to listen to his father instead of his brother.
1. Chapter 1

Uchiha sasuke had stopped smiling after that night. He would usually just sit on deck and stare into deep water of lake. His days were a mixture of hatred and training, and now when he would look at his reflection, he would see a tired child with large bags under his eyes. He could remember his brother's last words to him.

'I can't' he thought; his head between his knees. 'If I avenged my clan, what would be difference between me and itachi? We both would be kin slayer.' he shocked his head 'No, I have to do this. This is what they would want me to do, what is expected of me.'

[sasuke don't follow in your brother's footsteps] he suddenly his father's words. His head shot up; his eyes wide. 'No, what they truly wanted was for me to forge my own path' he had a sudden epiphany.

He stood up straight. His face more determined than ever. He looked at lake's water and made an oath in his heart. 'I will no longer follow down the path itachi determined for me. I will forge my own path, no matter what.' He then turned and walked back to his house.

!

Next day

"Sandaime-sama. Bad news bad news…" A chunin instructor of academy yelled at top of his lunge as he rushed in hokage's office.

"Hoo? What Happened?" Hokage cracked open one of his eyes,

Instructor waved a sheet of paper in air and said "sasuke, uchiha sauske"

Hearing that name made hokage alarmed "What about him? Start from beginning and give me that sheet."

"hai!" Instructor promptly gives him the sheet. Hokage's face lost its color as he begun to read it. "After end of morning class as I find sasuke absent I went to his house to investigate. He was not in his house and I noticed that his clothes and back pack is gone." He gluped "Then I found this note on his table saying that he is resigning from academy and he is going to find his own path"

"I see" paper crumpled in his hand.

Miles away from from konoha a black haired boy was walking alone under the shadows of trees. For the first time in months a small smile was gracing his lips.


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own Naruto.

Bare necessities of life

Uchiha sasuke was hungry. He had money but there was no store in sight so he had to rely on his food detection skill. Unfortunately he wasn't from Akimichi clan so he had no idea what was edible and what wasn't.

"gruuuu" His stomach requested food.

'There is no other choice. I have to experiment.' He thought.

There was a berries bush to his left. It had red large berries. Sasuke picked one. He smelt it. It had a sweet odor. He tentatively took a bit. He waited for awhile. Nothing happened. He decided it was safe enough.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

"Arghhh" Was moans of pain.

Few hours after eating the berries, here he was; writhing on ground from pain.

Clutching his stomach he stumbled to where his back pack was.

He took out a note book and went to the bushes.

He draws a picture of aforementioned bushes and after a brief hesitation, an enlarged picture of its leaf and berries beside it.

He wrote under it "Not very poisonous. Cause bearable stomach ache"

'One inspected' He thought 'God knows how many left.'

He looked at a nearby bush, it had pink berries. 'It has the making of good second research.' Suddenly losing his appetite he brooded. 'Wish I had been far-sighted enough to bring along a guidebook for finding food.'

He had brought along many things with him, including to but not limited to every scroll of jutsu, any books, documents and even the stone table. He had them all sealed in a storage scroll based on their similarity and sealed relevant scrolls within a new scroll and repeated that process until he had only one scroll left.

Just the fact that he had lost count of how many times he used sealing jutsu should be indicate how much he brought along.

In his defense all of them had belonged to him and in sealed version they aren't heavy!

But this isn't best part!

Because he was such a conspiracy-theory guy and very pessimistic; he used some kind of uchiha fuinjutsu to seal the scroll into himself. The sealing method was easy and tens of times more secure.

Its only difference in executing with standard sealing method was that there wasn't a storage scroll involved. The body itself would act as one. Also it needed blood and body of someone with active sharingan.

But it had a drawback for sasuke; a very big one too. Unlike sealing, unsealing needed a mature sharingan which he didn't have, yet. So the knowledge was as protected from him as to others.

So their usefulness was like winter clothes brought for a summer vacation in case you stayed until winter.

Of course too many things went wrong in his life. So maybe he wasn't too wrong to be pessimistic and pro-conspiracy-theory.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

An old man was walking in forest.

He was a civilian with no fighting training.

But he was as knowledgeable as he was old. And he was old indeed.

He was walking as swiftly as possible for someone his age.

Hemmm… It was a little faster than a turtle. Not much, because his goods weren't light.

As he was walking past a sullen kid –what does a child doing here anyway- he saw him picking a pink death berry.

His eyes bulged as he saw with his own two eyes that little idiot popped it into his mouth.

"You… Spit it out you brainless idiot…. Do you want to die screaming?" Shouted the elderly man while banging his cane on child's back.

The kid spited out "What…?" He quickly jumped to a safe distance.

'He had had ninja training' Old man thought 'so he must be strong'

"Where are you from you ignorant brat? Didn't your parents teach you to leave this" He pointed at pink berries bushes with his cane "alone? Where are they anyway?"

"They are gone" Was boy's answer accompanied with a glare.

Old man narrowed his eyes "You were about to join them boy…"

"Sasuke" He glowered "My name is sasuke… not boy not brat or anything else"

He rolled his eyes "Fine…Sasuke… just eating one of these berries is enough to kill you." Sasuke turned a shade paler. "Their name is pink death berry.. It's Fire country's most poisonous berry. Anyone who ate it would first be paralyzed then slowly turn pink while screaming in pain; so the name. You better remember it. "

He took off his back pack and told Sasuke to come closer. "Bo…Sasuke It seems you don't know anything about foods. If you help this fragile man by carry his goods to his home village, I would teach you everything you need to survive. Do we have a deal?"

Sasuke contemplated. "How far is your village?" He won't be taught anything in few hours after all.

"A week on foot."

"It's a deal" A small smile on his lips.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

One week later, Konoha, Academy

Iruka was troubled. No, it wasn't about Naruto this time.

But he wished it was.

This time Sasuke was source of his headache. He had quitted everything out of blue and has left konoha.

But after what happened to him Iruka couldn't really blame him. After all the boy had done what he didn't have the courage to do so. 'How many times did I plan to leave and start anew?' He asked himself. He never carried his plan out, he was too afraid of unknown world and losing what little was remained.

The outside world was dangerous; especially for last sane survivor of a clan such uchiha. He know hoping for his safety and happiness in outside was foolish but he begged to whatever god above to keep him safe until they found and brought him back.

He wouldn't be able to fend for himself. He was an irresistible target. Being a malleable kid an added bonus. He really didn't want to face him as an enemy.

He was sure he would be found in no time. For now he should just make excuse for his absence.

Or at least that was what he thought yesterday.

Today however, Hokage announced that the search has been proved futile. Of course they won't the search but it's unlikely he would be found.

So the duty of informing children has fallen into his lap.

He entered classroom.

"Good morning class."

"Good morning Iruka-sensei" Class choired.

He stood behind his desk. Looking at innocent face of them he suddenly hated his job. 'Just do it iruka…' he told himself. "Your fellow classmate has been absent this past week." He started.

Naruto bellowed "He is just scared of getting his ass kicked by me" Only to be intrupted by Naruto.

"Shut up Naruto" Said Sakura "Like You could ever do that"

"Be quiet!" Shouted Iruka. They stopped.

"Sasuke has left the village" Iruka decided to just drop the bomb.

"What" Someone yelled. Class went into an uproar.

"Why didn't Sasuke-kun took me?" Cried out a fan girl.

"Why would he took you? You look like a pig!" Another answered her. It was a conversation ready to turn into a cat fight.

"No way" Said Ino quietly. Strangely demure even thou she was one of more zealous fan girls. Then she shouted out "Is that mean Sauske-kun is a missing nin? Will hunters go after him? Iruka-sensai, Hokage-sama won't do that to him would he?" Everyone quieted down.

Iruka shake his head. "No, he isn't an official Ninja yet. So he can't be a missing-nin." He took a deep breath and waited for more questions.

But class has eerily silent.

"Was h-he Kidna-naped?" Hinata asked shyly and broke the silence. Everyone's attention focused on Iruka. 'If only they paid this much attention to class…' He sighed inwardly.

"No, he left willingly." Hesitating a little he added. "He left a note saying he is going away. saying he is resign…quitting from academy."

"What?" Naruto shouted. He stood up. His whole body was shaking in fury. "He just left like that? Left everything behind like its trash?"

He banged his fist on desk. "I will bring him back and and then show him being ninja is best! Believe me"

"Idiot, How can a dead last like you do that?" Someone said.

"I'm going to train and I would become super strong and then I will bring him back! Believe me!" Determination radiated off him.

Iruka smiled and said "Okay then, would you like to solve this problem for us?"

He wrote a problem on blackboard. Naruto looks at the problem and sees something in foreign language.

"Iruka-sensai I'm going to work on my shuriken throwing" And he jumps out of window.

"You brat, come back" Iruka shouts.

A/N: Don't worry oc won't stay for long.


End file.
